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Arizona could become latest state to ban attendance-related suspensions
An Arizona lawmaker is again trying to bar schools from using out-of-school suspensions to punish students who miss class, arguing the strategy is not only ineffective but harmful. House Bill 2218 is Rep. Laura Terech’s second attempt to ban the practice of suspending Arizona students for tardiness and truancy, after a 2022 investigation by AZCIR…
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EDUCATION
GOP-led push to fund police over counselors leaves some schools ‘in the lurch’
Strings attached to Arizona School Safety Program dollars are leaving school counselor and social worker positions unfunded throughout the state, as Republican leaders prioritize boosting campus police instead. The apparent mismatch between what schools need and what certain state leaders want to give them reflects an ongoing clash over which types of positions actually make…
Arizona gave families public money for private schools. Then private schools raised tuition.
Arizona became the first state to offer universal school choice for all families, giving them roughly $7,000 per student to spend on private schools and other nonpublic options. When some private schools in the state hiked their tuition after the law was passed last year, critics worried Arizona’s school choice program risks becoming a subsidy…
Proposed bill to ban suspensions for attendance violations falls short
Rep. Laura Terech, a Democrat, crafted a bill in response to an investigation by AZCIR and The Hechinger Report, which revealed for the first time the scope of the controversial disciplinary practice of suspending Arizona students for tardiness and truancy.
In wake of pandemic, some districts take less-punitive approach to absenteeism
Though suspending students for attendance violations is widespread in Arizona, it is not universal—or necessary, according to school and district leaders who have found ways around it. They argue effective alternatives must make school a place students want to be, and treat absenteeism as a problem to solve, rather than a behavior to punish.
Overrepresentation of Black, Hispanic students among those suspended for missing school could violate civil rights law
A first-of-its-kind analysis of education data shows that Black, Latino and Native American students are frequently overrepresented among those blocked from class for missing class — what some argue is evidence of a potential civil rights violation. White students, meanwhile, were largely underrepresented.
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